The heading on this blog says it’s about home recording and acoustic guitars. I actually became an acoustic guitar nut before I became a recording nut. We hosted our first guitar gathering back in 2001 with the idea that I would have a chance to try out guitars I could never experience otherwise. (more…)
In the guitar world we often talk about a phenomenon we call GAS – it stands for Guitar Acquisition Syndrome and it’s obviously an addiction that afflicts a lot of us. It’s common to see forum signatures with more than a half-dozen instruments listed, sometimes all very similar. I’ve certainly suffered from the ailment myself, but it’s been a few years since I bought a guitar. These days I have CAS – Camera Acquisition Syndrome, and it’s no less of a disease. (more…)
I think of this blog as being about acoustic guitar playing as much as it is about recording, but somehow the gadgets seem to get most of the attention. I’ve been fooling around with playing in different keys while using open G tuning and came up with a post that focuses on the playing side of things. (more…)
There are dozens of commonly repeated internet “certainties” related to PC recording, I think it’s possible that the most common is the need to replace the built-in soundcard (now usually a chip on the motherboard) with some sort of “real” interface. My first recordings were done with Shure SM57 into a Behringer Eurorack mixer through a chain of adapters into a Soundblaster soundcard, and I recall being blown away by the quality. That wonderful experience was followed by years of frustration and expense as I tried to buy my way to better recordings. (more…)
Those of us who post “look at me play guitar” videos on YouTube are quite interested in the audio quality of the resulting clips. I have some ideas about how to optimize uploads and downloads, and also some recordings that you can use to judge the current audio quality, at least as it pertains to solo acoustic guitar. (more…)
I’m amazingly lucky in so many ways, and one of them is my good fortune in having a dedicated recording space. I can leave mics and guitars out, decorate to my preference, put speakers in the middle of the room, and best of all, hang broadband absorbers all over the walls and ceiling and stuff them into every corner.
I found that installing these panels made a lot more difference in the quality of my recordings than upgrading a preamp or a/d converter, or even buying a new microphone. By improving the sound in the room, the acoustic treatment made the whole recording process much easier and more enjoyable. So when people ask me how to improve their recordings, one of the first things I suggest is room treatment. (more…)
REAPER 4 has brought quite a lot of improvement to REAPER video handling. With a little creativity it’s possible to add titles, cut between multiple clips, and insert stills, all with reasonable stability, excellent performance, and great audio processing. I’ve done a blog post and a video about using REAPER to sync audio and video, but I thought I’d do another one that looks at making a complete simple music video, with titling and overlays. (more…)
I’ve posted before about positioning the Q3HD for better audio when recording acoustic guitar. The other day I remembered the dinky little wide angle lenses available for pocket video camcorders and started doing a little research. I wound up ordering one from Photojojo.com. (more…)